Everyday Systems

NoelFigart

That sounds like fun!

NoelFigart

I have one about the coordination, Reinhard, but I don't know how adaptable it is to a system.

Choose a sport or activity that is HIGHLY technical (Swimming, dance, martial arts, tai-chi, yoga).

I note that ballet tends to yield extraordinarily good results, even with adults.

NoelFigart

Monday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Peanut butter toast Lunch: Leftover curry. It's gone now :( Dinner: Veggie egg scramble, bacon Tuesday (So far) Breakfast: 1/2 bowl of oatmeal eaten far too early in the morning for me to be hungry. Lunch: Bacon, eggs, mini bagel Dinner. NO idea. Someth...

NoelFigart

I don't always plan.

But I notice that when I DO, my S-days tend to be a LOT saner when I'm looking forward to a specific treat. So I probably SHOULD.

NoelFigart

http://noelfigart.com/blog/category/bento/ Granted, that's for motivated and creative. Otherwise: I don't always make bento. Leftovers for lunch is common, as is a grilled cheese sandwich. When it's cold, I heat up leftover soup. when it's hot, I often have a salad. I've had optimized oatmeal for l...

NoelFigart

Sunday S-Day I ate three discrete meals and had some snacks - mostly dark chocolate squares. I really need to make more of an effort to eat "proper" meals on S-days when reasonable. It makes it easier to judge what I'm eating. One thing I did notice on Saturday. You see, I buy mini bagels to eat at ...

NoelFigart

I am often diagnosed as anemic (heavy periods) so I take an iron pill. And a multivitamin, but I do often wonder if I really need it.

NoelFigart

S-Day I really didn't eat proper meals yesterday. I genuinely have no reality check to base it on as I didn't have the meal clarity to compare it to. I didn't eat so much that I felt badly physically. That's the best I can do with that. I had breakfast, then I had a doughnut in the middle of the mo...

NoelFigart

No. I might feel I made a choice that's not in line with my goals, but I'm so burnt out lifelong dieting and body image issues that I even find the idea of making it a moral issue an irritant. (Which is better than where I was a year ago when it used to severely piss me off, mind). ( Here's my diet ...

NoelFigart

S-Days are off the hook. Completely.

In practice, my meals tend to be one plate, as seconds were never the problem for me that snacking was/is (If I have an excessive S-day, it's snacking).

NoelFigart

Could we honestly feed everybody in America if all we have is pasture-raised animals and produce with no pesticides and genetic modifications? Yes. Food prices would jump back up to somewhere around 25-30% of the average income. You can do the math on that. (It's over twice what I pay for food now....

NoelFigart

I was thinking of something.

I don't know that this is so, but it's looking like it. Would anyone agree with me that on No-S a 10% of one's body weight a year is a reasonable expectation, or would one say that is at the slow end?

NoelFigart

FWIW, I make a lot of planned-overs myself. I'll cook a double helping of a meal and freeze one. It's a great boon on a busy day.

NoelFigart

Trendline still going down lower than my basic goal.

'Course a goal of losing 10% of one's body weight in a year is hardly dramatic, but I figure if I have a permanent habit because of it, I've come out on top.

NoelFigart

BA, yes, that you treat it as an enjoyable hobby is cool. What gripes me about OTHER people's reactions to someone who has decided to make a hobby out of weight is that they put it out there that there is a moral failing in choosing not to, as if I have some moral responsibility to go to ANY extreme...

NoelFigart

Friday

No-S
Glass Ceiling
Exercise

Breakfast: Peanut butter toast
Lunch: optimized oatmeal
Dinner: Curry. Oh god, did I make a delicious curry. When they taste my delicious curry, all shall love me and despair.

Exercise: Swimmin'.

Looking forward to my S days.

NoelFigart

Nicest is right. Make sure you're eating enough during the day. Don't be afraid of big plates at first. (They get smaller, promise). Keep in mind that No-S does have some training stages, especially if you're coming from dieting or disordered eating. This also might mean a small weight gain at first...

NoelFigart

Before I tell this story, I am waaaayyyy the hell above a healthy weight. (If you're interested in numbers you can look at my Saturday charts on my check in thread). That said: I'm also 5'2". When I was a youngster I was encouraged to diet a lot, as I studied dance. When I couldn't get to a very sle...

NoelFigart

Thursday

No-S
Exercise
Glass Ceiling

Breakfast: Peanut butter toast. Been INTO that the last couple of days
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich and brussels sprouts
Dinner: Chicken in wine sauce, pasta, broccoli
Wine while cooking dinner and a hard cider with dinner.

NoelFigart

Welcome.

This is one of the more kindly Internet forums you're likely to find, so I expect you'll enjoy being here.

Good luck with the No-S.

NoelFigart

Nicest, I agree that if you're follow the tradition, Shabbat dinner should be the best dinner of the week if possible! I don't personally see anything wrong with reserving foods you've tagged as "special" for S days if that's working for you. I think I might have misunderstood what you were saying a...

NoelFigart

I don't know if this would help wrap your mind around it, Nicest, but something that's really helpful to me (and one of the reasons the No-S part of my habits is the easiest to stick to) is that at any one meal, I tell myself I can make something REALLY TASTY for my next meal if I really want to, so...

NoelFigart

"If I have to smell it, I will move it"? What do you want to bet that she's a high-maintenance type? I wouldn't be surprised if she's the only one in the office that complains about the smell of lunches that her co-workers eat at their desks. LOL. It would tempt me to start making the strong-smelli...

NoelFigart

I'm self-employed. Some weeks I work 80 hours, others 20. I don't have a work schedule that has a "real" weekend per-se. I just take my S-days on Saturday, Sunday and holidays and let it be. On weeks where I don't have a lot of work, YES YES YES, I want to do something special to relax, and yes, tha...

NoelFigart

That depends on what your goals are and how time sensitive they are. My personal goal is less about weight loss (though like you about 2 lbs a month is about how fast I'm losing) and more about ingraining habit long-term. For that, I CAN'T do a mod, or I'll be screwing up. I'm trying to overcome a l...

NoelFigart

It can be difficult to get small children to eat three, or even four, times a day. Mostly, we worried about nutrition That brings up an interesting thought. In my household, as I've mentioned before, we had a bit of an "Eat or starve" mentality. We served three meals and two snacks. If the kid did ...

NoelFigart

Wednesday No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Oatmeal Lunch: Leftover beans, toast Dinner: Chicken puttanesca, pasta Ate a little piece of chicken before it got to the plate. I count nibbles while cooking in the interests of strictness on being vanilla. Wine: 1 glass while cooking, one while havi...

NoelFigart

There's a lot of power in being pre-disapproved by No-S rules. Wozniak is right about the weight of the many microdecisions. I like the macro-decisions of No-S because it simplifies things a lot and puts eating decisions more on automatic. It's one of the beauties of the system, in my strong opinion...

NoelFigart

I think they get easier to resist with habit training. Most of us have YEARS of the habit of nibbling behind us. But a few months on No-S and most of user here report getting to the point where they don't notice the dish so much.

I agree that outlawing them for the office is unreasonable.

NoelFigart

I think that I have far too much to do controlling my own behavior to have Melanie's energy to worry about other people's. My choice in that situation was to put on my big girl panties and realize that my own neurons controlled the reach for the candy dish. I wouldn't want to work for her even if I ...

NoelFigart

Yeah, a failure.

Still, it's nice to see failures become milder, isn't it?

NoelFigart

I do weigh every week. Enter it into an Excel spreadsheet which generates a graph complete with trend line. (I'm a computer applications instructor and 60% of the time I'm teaching Excel, so I'm always looking for ways to play with it so that I can be more useful to my students). Even though I do th...

NoelFigart

Interesting article, but I think that his comment about a 40 lb squat had to be hyperbole. I'm not presently weight training, but I'm positive my max is still higher than 80 and I'm a woman.

NoelFigart

Congratulations.

NoelFigart

Tuesday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Oatmeal, raisins, walnuts Lunch: leftover chicken puttanesca, strawberries, mini bagels Dinner: Chicken stir fry with broccoli, carrots, onions, ginger and garlic. Over rice. 2 glasses wine. I swam this morning. Going to have a long day tomorrow. Teach...

NoelFigart

wosnes, breakfast lover that I am, there is strong historic evidence to point away from the "hearty breakfast" idea in our not-so-manual labor culture. What we think of in the US as a traditional breakfast (eggs, bacon and all that), is culturally for people who have been doing 3-4 hours of manual l...

NoelFigart

mbell wrote:Let this be a warning to all of you newbies who've maybe done a few weeks and think you've got it nailed

For what it's worth, getting right back on the wagon IMMEDIATELY as you did is part of having it nailed.

JMHO, but I think you've a right to feel like you're doing well.

NoelFigart

Any No-Ser knows the effect of hunger on one's pleasure in food, of course, so I know I'm kind of preaching to the choir here. But I had one of those, "Oh God, that was delicious !" moments this morning after a very mundane meal just thought it was funny. Now, I'm primarily a swimmer when it comes t...

NoelFigart

Sunday S-day I didn't eat a proper breakfast so I nibbled a great deal of the day, but in looking back, it probably would have fit on three plates. I also had some chocolate truffles. Today has been fine. No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Oatmeal Lunch: leftover red beans, brussels sprouts (The...

NoelFigart

Nicest of the Damned wrote:The important thing is not how many starts or failures you have. The important thing is to have one more start than you have failures.

Oh, that's GOOD. I like that.

And it's an important point!

NoelFigart

This isn't about the calories. Kevin is right. It's about habit. Of COURSE an apple isn't worse for you than apple juice from a nutrition standpoint. That's not the point! The point is that we're trying to develop the habit of eating only at discrete, specific meals. (I choose three, but people migh...

NoelFigart

Veggie egg scrambles are delicious. Definitely a good way to get those vegetables in!

NoelFigart

Who Me? wrote:
It will be a joyous day when my pants are around my ankles.
Trying not to be sassy and inappropriate...

Naw, let it out. No-S is about moderation. Such things are fun in moderation, too.

NoelFigart

A lot. My habit in the past seems to have done 3-4 months on the No-S diet, then get pissed off at expectations for women to be sexy and skinny all the time, then not want to THINK about diet or exercise for several months. So, I'm not going to say that this habit has stuck until I've done this for ...

NoelFigart

I took a look at this, and suggestions for cook books is excellent! As you state, any real cookbook is perfect for No-S, so that hooks into what you've already said.

If you can target a SPECIFIC book, the Small Batch Baking book would be great for S-days.

Exercise DVDs are a good choice, too.

NoelFigart

Thanks, KCCC. Friday: Exercise No-S Glass Ceiling Breakfast: Peanut Butter toast Lunch: Cheese sandwich Dinner: Pizza Not the world's healthiest day, but OTOH, a headache that would have had me stay home if I had a "real job" with actual leave probably constitutes as "sick", so the fact that I stuck...

NoelFigart

Thursday: No-S Exercise Glass Ceiling Brunch: Scrambled eggs, bacon, mini bagel Dinner:Beans-n-rice, salad I don't ordinarily only eat two meals a day, but I had a bunch of meetings and a class to teach, so eating a good-sized brunch (still only one plate) and then dinner worked out better for timin...

NoelFigart

There's a lot to be said just for showing up!

NoelFigart

Wednesday Exercise No-S Glass Ceiling Breakfast: Poached eggs on toast Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich with bacon Dinner: Chicken, green peppers, onions, ginger and carrots stir fry over rice Glass of wine with dinner and another relaxing after dinner. My son made dinner last night, which was a bless...

NoelFigart

re: cupcakes:

I will point out most desserts freeze rather well.

NoelFigart

Tuesday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Peanut butter sandwich Lunch Salad. (I can see I'm yearning for summer if I'm willing to put up with the out of season stuff available right now) Dinner: Pasta puttanesca Iâ€™ve mentioned before that my fitness goal is to show up every weekday for half...

NoelFigart

Noel, I thought of you, my writer-friend. Knowing that you write and do No-S made me realize that it MUST be possible to do so without chips by my side or frequent trips to the kitchen. I was eating to get a break, and eating for "comfort" because making myself write is hard (at first... once I'm i...

NoelFigart

Thank you for posting this. I really needed to read that. It has kind of solved a serious problem in forming good habits that I have: not doing the calm parent thing in the face of the extinction burst. I never MADE that connection before and I'm very grateful that you posted something that outlines...

NoelFigart

It was my maternal grandmother's expression. She was rather an extraordinary character. I'm quite shy, retiring and reticent next to her. (And have a better vocabulary, but I had something of a posher education). If you WILL work out in the evenings and don't struggle to do so, it's probably the bes...

NoelFigart

It is simple to escape bad food at movie theaters. Just don't eat anything while you're watching the movie. You won't starve to death in two or even three hours. Really. Yep. You're very smart. There is a reason food is pushed as part of the Movie Experience, though. You see, movie theaters don't r...

NoelFigart

Monday: No-S Exercise Glass Ceiling Breakfast: Peanut butter sandwich Lunch: Fried eggs on toast Dinner: Veggie-laden spaghetti sauce over noodles. I've been getting my swim out of the way every morning. Which is good, because I've been busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest. In fact...

NoelFigart

don't give up, keep it up and when it hurts it means it's working! (I have been doing the 30-day shred by Jillian michaels (biggest loser girl) and I have to say that work-out kicks my butt!) Good Lord'n butter, woman, don't put words in my mouth. NO NO NO, don't keep up when it hurts! I was discus...

NoelFigart

Yes. I got back into swimming a couple of weeks ago, thinking it really wasn't going to do all that much for my legs. Well, my legs were sore the first week, so clearly swimming was doing more than I thought. Does anyone else get irritated with the people who say, "Oh work out and you'll be so ENERG...

NoelFigart

Mark it and move on...

Writing stress is the pits. I feel for you. Combine that with hormonal issues and hey, life happens.

That you're jumping back on the wagon without spinning out worse is good, though.

NoelFigart

Sunday: S-day Had some cookies yesterday, as well as some buttered toast as a bedtime snack. I try not to do that too often, even if it's perfectly fine on S-days. I like it a bit too much and I'm afraid of re-instituting the habit. Swam this morning. Thank goodness I was out of the door and in the ...

NoelFigart

FWIW, a one day jump in weight is definitely a statistical anomaly.

Nothing over a period of more than a month is really too useful. If you wanna check out my check in thread you'll see chart where there are weekly weigh-ins that illustrate the point.

NoelFigart

ellgee wrote:Today when I hopped on the scale, I was up a little over a pound.

Over what time period?

NoelFigart

Saturday: S-day I wound up having three cookies all told in addition to normal meals. Well, okay, dinner was plateful, but it was Delicious Sushi, so I can't say it was "normal". But in terms of volume, quite usual. So, that's a good S-day. I was just debating with myself about whether or not to hav...

NoelFigart

http://noelfigart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2011FirstQuarterWeightLoss.png I just post these graphs from time to time to reassure people who don't have a linear weight loss that it can be okay. I weigh every Saturday morning. The yellow line is the trendline. That's the important one. As ...

NoelFigart

So, Wednesday, I got a bunch of cookies from the King Arthur bakery. I put them in the freezer, planning to enjoy a few come S-days. I don't know how other people are, but I've noticed that for myself, planning for and looking forward to S-day treats is amazingly good for keeping the S-day sane. So,...

NoelFigart

Yes, refined cane sugar was very expensive, indeed, and only the well-to-do used it at all. You can get a great feeling for this by reading Little House on the Prairie where Laura describes actually SEEING white sugar and being allowed a taste. By then, sugar was more commonly available, but the Ing...

NoelFigart

And now it's an S-day and I can have a cookie. YA!

NoelFigart

Friday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Oatmeal Lunch: Quesadilla Dinner: Stir fry (made by my son) Got on the scale this morning and saw a very dramatic drop in weight. If it's right, I'll have lost almost ten pounds since the beginning of the year. Sllloooww. But my goal is to lose 10% of m...

NoelFigart

ellgee wrote:Or Dances with Chocolate? Though I might hesitate to wear that to the gym.

I wouldn't. But I'm a smartybrat and the patrons know it.

NoelFigart

My opinion: If it's NATURAL for you to eat two meals a day, go for it.

That said, I think it would be amazingly FOOLISH to TRY to do it to be extra "good" if it's not naturally a comfortable pattern.

NoelFigart

KCCC wrote: Oh, I don't know... I'd totally wear one of those to a gym. Especially in January.

That's incredibly apt. Our "Resolution" overcrowding at the gym rarely lasts out the month.

NoelFigart

Thursday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Oatmeal Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich, yogurt Dinner: Curry, delicious Malaysian curry. And REDNECK WINE! (White Zinfindel. You'll never manage to make me like the "good stuff" as much as I like a glass of the pink stuff). Managed to stick to a resol...

NoelFigart

Tuesday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exericse Wednesday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exericse I seem to be getting mixed up what days I ate what. Ah well. I didn't snack, have sweets or seconds, so who cares? I've asked my husband to knock me upside the head if I try to go hammer and tongs at exercise. I must be cons...

NoelFigart

oolala, I mean if you want to accept the number that looks better for you, that's your call, but from a scientifically accurate perspective, what I'd want to see (and I would be surprised to see it happen) would be a study done tracking health rates where the BMI and Body Fat Percentage differ. Ther...

NoelFigart

Just... Be careful. I started dieting at 12 because my father was sooo worried I'd have a weight problem like my mother. Let's just say it didn't prevent an adulthood weight problem. While I'm a grown-up and responsible for my own actions, the cycle that was encouraged (kindly, Daddy wasn't MEAN to ...

NoelFigart

BMI is just bad science.

NoelFigart

Now I'm not a Christian, but IIRC Good Friday is still during Lent and while a holiday, isn't it a fast day?

If Easter Monday is traditional for your culture, then yeah, celebrate it. (And definitely make the biscuits if it's the traditional way to celebrate the holiday).

NoelFigart

I'd say that is skirting the edge, myself, but I also think that if it's contained somehow, it's still better than breaking the no food between meals rule. Then again, I had a glass of wine about an hour before dinner this evening because my husband was coming home from work late and I was starving!...

NoelFigart

Encyclopedia Brown was AWESOME.

And I think you're being a bit irresponsible and unthinking to be pushing TV Tropes on an innocent and unsuspecting audience like that. Think of the wasted time!

NoelFigart

Shall we call you Dances with Chocolate, Laura? *grin*

Treats in their proper place are more fun.

NoelFigart

Yes, Dave, I'd had cookies from the King Arthur bakery at another time.

Goodness me, I really must learn to be more precise in my writing. Wouldn't want my veracity doubted.

NoelFigart

Today was the last class for a series I was doing, and a couple of my students were employees for a company that sells flour, baking material and... baked goods. They brought in COOKIES!!!!!!! It's Wednesday, darn it. I didn't eat one, but I bought the extras home after urging because I didn't want ...

NoelFigart

Monday: No-S Glass Ceiling Exercise Breakfast: Peanut butter sandwich Lunch: Grilled Cheese Sandwich with bacon Dinner: Bowl of Spaghetti Not a stellar nutrition day, but I'm not sweating it. I put a pepper in the spaghetti sauce, but I don't think that makes up for no veggies or fruit at other meal...

NoelFigart

As long as you can not get depressed when your weight goes up, it's not the worst compulsion. This. Kevin is right. It is my opinion that if you're going to weigh yourself every day, at least do yourself a favor and keep track of it in Excel or something, and make a chart that plots a moving averag...

NoelFigart

so.. I know both of you stated slightly older children, but I suppose I wonder, should I offer my 3-year-old snacks? He's a pretty smart kid, and I know that, for the most part, he can tell if he's hungry, but what I am worried about is, am I being horrible by not providing him food BEfore he gets ...

NoelFigart

I'm too much of a cheapskate to eat appetizers except as a small meal alone. (Legacy from daddy). Unless I'm at a high end restaurant, I don't worry about the bread. I make my own bread, and only a specialty baker is going to do better. I just decline a starter salad. (If I want all of those things,...

NoelFigart

Ok so for breakfast this morning (7:30am) I had about 1 serving of kashi heart to heart cereal with skim milk. It held me until about 1pm, when I started having hunger pangs (which is a record). I had 32 oz of water and a couple of cups of tea in between. I ended up having lunch at 1:30pm. I though...

NoelFigart

I don't try to control what he gets at other people's house, including the neighbor I described above.) I figure if I can get the basics solid, it will be good enough and if I pressure too much, it'll backfire. Hope that helps. I think this is smart. Barring allergy issues, it's probably the way to...

NoelFigart

Well, I'm also a boring old lady who is in bed by nine and up before five, too.

NoelFigart

I'm also thinking about putting together a peanut butter sandwich or bagel the night before to take with me. I had a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast this morning. Came home from my swim STARVING and didn't want to take the time to prepare anything else, or even wait for water to boil for oatme...

NoelFigart

You are certainly not being a horrible parent to feed your children three full meals a day and not provide snacks! You're darn right a growing child needs food. That's what meals are for . Now, that said... When my children were very small, they got three meals a day and two small snacks (fruit, pea...

NoelFigart

Nicest is right.

And it's funny how we all want to charge in and change all our bad habits at once. It's almost as if we're scared they're going to get away

NoelFigart

Yes. Take lessons, preferably from someone who understands that you're working on technique for cardio. That lap that exhausts you means that your technique is making you work a lot harder than you need to. Swimming is so skill based that you can take a marathon runner with a knee injury that he's t...

NoelFigart

Monday: No S Glass Ceiling Exercise I swam half an hour today as well, but I'm noticing that I'm REALLY BAD at not wanting to push for progress. Last week I'd been swimming 900 yards in 30 minutes (Yes, you real swimmers, I know that's slow). I swam 1000 yards in the same time today and starting fin...

NoelFigart

MysteryLover wrote:I hear ya on the hair color. Had to bite the bullet and start dyeing recently too. Just wanted to say that I love the idea of a shot glass of ice cream. Usually just a small taste of something sweet is all that is needed after a meal.

How to make dessert shooters

NoelFigart

1. I have a meal plan, how can I pick foods to eat at my school when I have no idea how they are made because it is hard to cook for myself. Keep in mind that when doing No-S, you don't have to micromanage that kind of thing. The rule is ONE PLATE OF FOOD per meal. It's about portion. A whole plate...

NoelFigart

Alcohol IS mostly empty calories. There's no doubt at all about that.

But so's ice cream. It's all about moderation.

NoelFigart

As much as I adore NoS, I'm pretty skeptical about 14 minutes of anything. Sure, 14 minutes are better than doing nothing, but after seeing your pictures I just absolutely can't believe you built such an impressive physique with nothing but a sledgehammer and walking! Looking ripped is more about l...

NoelFigart

S-day I marked Saturday red for Glass Ceiling. I had an Attitude Adjustment, a Woodchuck (hard cider. Delicious) and a refill on the Attitude Adjustment, as there was a bit left in the shaker. Sunday: Breakfast: Cheese on toast Lunch: Grilled CHeese sandwich Snack: two slices of toast (Seeing a pat...

NoelFigart

Yes, 100% juice is okay to drink. It's pretty hard to go overboard with 100% juice. That said, I just HAVE to encourage you to read Reinhard's No-S book because he explains the place of caloric drinks in No-S so succinctly. Basically you CAN drink caloric drinks as long as they're not a sweet (meani...

Everyday Systems

Search found 1639 matches

Re: Organic Foods

Re: don't get too smug!!

Hunger is the Best Sauce

Re: Saletan and food at movie theaters

Planning for S-day treats

Brought Me Cookies

Re: Compulsively weighing myself

Re: the hunger pang thang

Re: New and hopeful